And the history books forgot about us
by Sephy-Stabbity
Summary: And the bible didn't mention us. Drabbles focusing on the Sei/Youko pairing, both in-universe and AUs.
1. The Songs of Summer

I had intermittently written some Sei/Youko drabbles of the couple in various AUs, so I thought I might as well clean them up and I'll be posting them here as I do so.

**Happily Ever After**

It was always so simple in the stories. The prince rescued the princess from the wicked dragon, and bam! Done deal.

Too bad Sei had never been one to care for fairy tales.

Certainly, she herself had never been any sort of prince. And sometimes, when she was very angry, or preparing for a presentation at her office, Youko reminded Sei more of a dragon than a princess.

In the end, Sei mused, theirs was not the kind of story that people would ever write about, anyhow.

Because, in stories, the princess waits around mooning, then the prince finally notices her, and then they go and live happily ever after.

In real life, the princess gets tired of waiting, and falls in love with that god-damned dekochin with her too goddamn big forehead, and the prince is left behind, alone with the thoughts of what could have been, as they ride off into the sunset.

oooooo**  
**

**I saw your face, in a crowded place**

It starts out as just a normal day, with Sei waiting in line at her preferred cafe for her daily espresso. The man in front of the register, clearly in a hurry to be somewhere else, receives a steeped tea to go and turns around hurriedly, bumping into the previous customer.

Almost as if slow motion, Sei watches the tea slip out of the man's precarious grasp, dangerously close to the previous customer.

_Shit._

Quickly she reaches out and snatches the cup before the scalding liquid can spill. Thankfully, the lid stays intact. Taking a deep breath and thanking the stars for that particular piece of fortune, she turns around to the man, to hand him back his drink. Only to find her eyes locked instead onto the gaze of the woman she's just saved from death by parboiling.

Short cut black hair accentuating a perfectly symmetrical face. Medium coffee in one hand, the morning paper in the other. Coal black eyes looking back at her in a surprisingly steady gaze, considering that the woman had been mere seconds away from having scalding hot tea spilt all over her expensive-looking suit. _Tailored and brand-name too_, Sei notices absentmindedly, feeling an inexplicable twitch of irritation at the observation.

Then the moment passes, and the woman gives a brief smile, that quite takes Sei's breath away.

"Thank you.", she says, in even, measured tones, and smoothly moves around Sei and heads for the door, practiced feet striding in heels so tall that it makes Sei wince just to look at them.

"You're welcome." Sei calls back belatedly, and if her tone isn't quite as nonchalant as she would have liked, the brief smile she once again gets in return, as the woman looks back one last time before exiting the cafe, is worth it.

oooooo

**If there's so much I must be, can I still just be me?**

"You can be anything you want to be, Sei." Father tells often during her years of middle school, smiling at her with the same smile she has seen him use on associates at business meetings. The same smile that he and Mother give each other at the weekly garden parties they host, when they try so hard to pretend that they love each other, they really do, and _look at us, aren't we the perfect little nuclear family, oh yes we are._

But Sei doesn't just want to be anything. She wants to be everything. She wants to be a dancer and she wants to be a writer and she wants to be a rockstar. She wants to travel the world, and stop to smell the roses, she wants to while the night away running through streets wet with rain,and then she wants to come home to a warm fire and a waiting woman, _so don't you fucking tell me I can be anything I want to be, Father._

And Higuchi Satou can never understand why his daughter, already so solemn at so young an age, never smiles back at him during their 'heart-to-heart' talks, just nods silently when he's finished, and then walks away.

It's not that way with Youko. But then, Sei reflects irritably, nothing's ever been _that_ way with Youko.

"...just don't understand why you don't apply to this program." the woman in question herself finishes, her voice smooth, but disappointment showing clearly in her face as she looks at Sei. "You are more than qualified to be accepted, and you know you can do well."

Sei lets out a frustrated groan. "For the hundredth time Youko, you don't understand. My parents won't approve and I'll have to move, and my father expects me to take over the company when he retires, and it's just not that eas..."

"I'm not telling you it's going to be easy, Sei." Youko cuts in sharply. "I'm telling you it's going to be worth it."

And Sei is angry because Youko is supposed to be her rock. She is supposed to stay by her side, to back her up, to support her decisions, to accept her in weakness and in failure.

So she tells her so.

Youko's response is to draw Sei down to face her, holding her face in a surprisingly strong grip, for hands so slender.

"I'll accept you in weakness." she whispers, eyes never leaving Sei's own. "And I'll accept you in failure." Soft as feathers, her fingers trace over Sei's cheekbones. "But I can't accept that you didn't even try, Sei."

For a few minutes, Sei cannot trust herself to speak. She is aware that the result if she does so, would be tears.

"All right," she mumbles, when she finally finds her voice. "I'll go the post office tomorrow, send the application form in."

If Youko notices the traitorous tears that slip from Sei's eyes, as the latter draws her into a tight embrace, she mercifully gives no sign of it.

oooooo

**Author's Notes:**

Drabble 1: Yes this is a future in which get togethers, and Sei...Well, Sei remains Sei, I suppose. I hope no one feels trolled or anything. I've already talked in detail elsewhere about actually rather liking the Eriko/Youko pairing (I might possibly be the only one if fandom to do so?). Most of all, however, I just really wanted to explore how older Sei and Youko would act with each other, if they actually weren't each other's love interest.

Drabble 2: Idk, I think is Sei and Youko met randomly, Sei would probably be annoyed by Youko and Youko would probably be annoyed by Sei, but they'd probably be mutually intrigued by each other. Or idk, maybe that's just some weird headcanon of mine.

Drabble 3: From the hints given in canon, I've always speculated that Sei likely came from a rich family with emotionally distant parents, while Youko came from a less dysfuctional, upper middle-class family, (and, as a sidenote, probably got into Lilian as much by merit as by money) and that's how the differences in their personalities must have developed.


	2. And Winter Fell

Thank you for your kind feeback. You make my day when I read them, seriously. Anyhow, here's two more for the road~

ooooo

Summary: She doesn't know any stories, but the child is intent on hearing one from her.

**Once Upon a Time**

"A story?" the woman said awkwardly, at the eager young face that stared up at her "I don't think I ..."

But the child was insistent, and finally the woman gave in.

"All right," she sighed. "Um, how do these things start again...?"

"Once upon a time..." the child prompted helpfully.

"Oh right, once upon a time...um..." Inspiration suddenly struck her. "Okay. Once upon a time there was a lord, who was handsome and beautiful and had everything money could buy."

The child nodded in satisfaction, at this proper opening.

"But he was lonely, that lord, and he was always looking for something fill his loneliness."

That elicited a sympathetic frown from her listener .Encouraged, the woman continued.

"It so happened that one day this lord came to know of a treasure worth more than diamonds or gold, and he knew that he must, he must, _he must _have it."

"What was it?" the child asked curiously, unable to conceive of something so valuable.

"Winter and onyx and roses, little love, and the very stars above."

"Those aren't treasures." the child said doubtfully.

"Maybe not," the woman smiled sadly, "but they were worth the world to the lord."

_(For she'd had hair as dark as ebony, with rosebud lips and eyes as bright as stars, and her heart had been purer than the palest shade of winter.)_

"But he never did find his treasure, though he searched far and wide," she continued, the knives of memory making her voice raw. "For, you see, it had belonged to another the whole time."

The child's face fell. Evidently, this was not an ending she preferred.

"He should have stolen the treasure." she said decisively. "He should have stolen it, and run off with it."

"He tried." the woman answered honestly. "He tried very hard hard to steal it, little love, but all his best efforts were in vain, and he grieved over his loss for a very long time."

_(She was not his to steal. She had never been his.)_

The woman smiled as she took in the disappointment on the face of the child looking up at her. _I need to remember to tell her mother, that this one has inherited her formidable forehead._

"It's alright, kid." she said awkwardly, attempting to pacify the child, who continued to pout. "It was alright in the end."

"The lord found a princess he loved more than any treasure in the world, you see. And they lived happily ever after."

_(And once, a long time ago, the little lord would have scoffed at you, if you'd told him that happiness came in the form of someone nagging at you to do the dishes every day, and take out the garbage every night.)_

And the young girl seemed to like this ending after all, and she smiled satisfiedly up at the older woman, eyes drooping as the morning's exertions took their toll on her.

"Nap time for you then." the other murmured, watching the girl fall asleep and suddenly feeling exhausted herself, as the old memories came back to her.

"Sweet dreams, kid."

There was the sound of a door shutting softly behind her, and she turned around to see her lover, in the process of taking off her work jacket.

"Sei," Mizuno Youko began, as she took in the disarray on the floor, toys lying haphazardly next to the sleeping child. "What have I told you about it being absolutely unnecessary to buy an entire toy store, whenever Eriko's daughter comes along?" She shook her head in exasperation, and bent down to the put the scattered toys in some semblance of order.

"But Youkoooooo, it's fun." Sei whined, looking up at her with a pout she knew the other woman could not resist.

Youko tried to look stern, and then threw up her hands in defeat at the continued attack of the pout. Abandoning the toys and sparing a wary glance at Eriko's daughter, still napping peacefully, she moved to embrace her lover from behind.

"Mm." Sei sighed contentedly and snuggled into the embrace, as Youko planted lazy kisses on her neck.

They stayed that way for a while, content to bask in each other's silence.

"So I'm your princess huh?" Youko whispered in her ear suddenly and Sei felt her face heat up.

"You heard that?" she asked, embarrassed, looking back to see a teasing smirk playing on her lover's lips.

"Mmhmm." Youko confirmed, her eyes twinkling with amusement, "And what does that make you, my lor..."

"Oh, shut up", interrupted Sei, her cheeks as flaming red as fire sirens at this point, but Youko only giggled in delight at this, and suddenly, Sei didn't feel so tired any longer.

(_For the princess had been as lonely as the lord, you see. And somewhere along the way, they found out that neither had been as alone as they had thought they were.)_

ooooo

A/N: I just wanted to write shameless fluff. Don't judge me :P

ooooo

Summary: Inspired by a tumblr prompt, a snippet about Marimite characters in a AU setting. Sei and Youko play weird games of one-upmanship and Sei's already been hurt once, she doesn't intend to get hurt again.

(The setting is kinda vaguely based on the seven kingdoms of Westeros, from ASoIaF.)

**Red Roses and Steel Thorns**

The Duchess of Highgarden had on a crown of roses and fire-lilies when she entered the room, and her robes were as red as the sigil of her house. In the brightly lit room, they proved a striking contrast against her dark hair and pale skin, and she burned bright as wildfire, drawing all eyes to her.

Well, almost all.

_How dramatic, _Sei thought idly, eyes flicking towards the duchess for a second and then back down to the book in her hands.

Her eyes roved intently over the page without taking in the words, unwilling to look a moment more into the smile that permanently played on the duchess' lips, as Lady Mizuno Youko moved across the room, clasping the hands of friends and strangers alike, and murmuring words of welcome to them. _How distasteful._

But then, the roses _had_ always been prone to drama.

Out of the corner of the eye, she noted the one-woman procession moving gradually but in a direct line towards her, and groaned inwardly.

"Lady Satou." her old friend proclaimed in a carrying voice, every inch the gracious hostess. "Highgarden welcomes you. My house welcomes you. I welcome you."

She paused, clearly waiting for Sei to reply in kind.

"Youko." Sei replied simply, unwilling to play, and was rewarded by a tiny twitch of irritation that flashed over her old friend's face at this departure from etiquette.

"Always a pleasure, love." she continued smugly, but was disappointed when that wiped away all the exasperation from Youko's face, for some reason, leaving only the perpetual smile behind.

"That must be an engrossing book you're reading," her friend commented, her voice bland. "I haven't caught you looking up from it all night."

"Yes." Sei replied, thrown off guard by this non sequitur comment. "Very interesting, in fact." she said defensively, wondering why on earth she felt the need to emphasize this to the other woman.

"Indeed." Youko replied amicably. "Especially interesting, if you're reading it upside down, Lady Satou."

Sei looked down instinctively at the book to check. "It's not upside do.." she began, looking back up, then stopped. "Oh." _She tricked me._

"Oh." Mizuno Youko imitated her, positively smirking now and for just a second, Sei's hand itched to throw the book at her, just to wipe that smile off.

"What do you want, anyway?" she grumbled, sick of this game already.

"Is that how you treat your old friends now?" the question was teasing, inviting a smile, but Sei didn't feel like smiling right then.

Youko's voice softened. "I haven't seen or heard from you all year. Come take a walk with me in the garden, so we can catch up. For old times' sake, Lady Satou...Sei." She tooks Sei's hand in hers, softly, tentatively, with all the famed grace of the roses.

Sei snatched it back as if burned.

"Maybe another time." she declined. "I have a book to finish reading, you see."

If nothing else, she had the bittersweet satisfaction of seeing the smile wiped off the duchess' face, as she resolutely turned back to her book.

ooooo

_This far up north, the winter was murder to strangers, but Sei was used to the snow-covered paths, and rode them with the ease of long practice. _

_It was nearly midnight when she reached her destination, and she was received with much confusion by the sisters of the church, as she dismounted and asked for permission to stay the night. _

_Sei barely heard their confused questions, though, nor their whispered discussion about where to put the Duchess of Winterfell up. _

_She only had eyes for the novice that stared back at her with wide eyes from the back of the crowd, the expression on her face alternating between sheer joy and abject horror. _

ooooo

She met Youko in the old lemon grove in the garden anyways, much later, after most of the castle was already fast asleep, digesting the day's feast.

"You were quite rude this morning." Youko's was neutral, but the words had an edge to them. "In front of all the guests."

Sei wanted to the throw back a flippant reply, but the anger practically radiating off her friend's body stopped her.

"I'm sorry," she muttered instead. "I truly am. But I couldn't stand it there. With them." Them with their painted smiles, and the false courtesies that struck deeper than knives or swords.

Youko sighed, her anger tempered by understanding. "Why must you always be so insistent of rejecting all notions of society property?"

"Why must you always be so insistent on following them?" Sei retorted, quick as lightning.

Youko blinked.

"Because it's expected of me." she replied, in a tone that might as well have said "Water is wet." or "The sky is blue." "Because it's..."

ooooo

"_I'll sleep in the cathedral." Sei said firmly, putting up a gloved hand to quell the whispered argument between the sisters, never taking her eyes away from Shiori. _

"_I'll be there, if anyone needs me." With a last lingering look, she left for the cathedral._

ooooo

"...your duty." Sei finished, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice. _Always, the duty. _

Youko glanced at Sei, looking taken aback by the vehemence in her voice.

"Of course." she replied slowly. "It _is_ my duty. My family's honor depends on it, Sei."

Sei snorted and looked away, unwilling to continue the discussion.

Youko didn't seem to mind her curtness, merely turning an admiring gaze back to the garden instead.

Well, she was probably used to it by now, Sei supposed. _Heaven knows why we're still friends._

"Do you remember the last time we were here?" Youko interrupted her thoughts suddenly, her voice was dreamy, softened by nostalgia.

Sei tensed. "No." She replied shortly.

ooooo

_Her lover looked like a goddess when she entered the cathedral. Framed against the winter storm raging outside, she seemed like mercy and peace and salvation, to Sei's starving soul._

"_You belong with me, Shiori." Her voice was raw, open, her heart laid open for all the world to see. "Leave with me. We'll run away. Somewhere Anywhere."_

ooooo

"You kissed me here, under this very tree when we were eight." Her companion tilted her head and surveyed Sei through hooded eyes. Don't tell me you don't remember, Satou Sei."

"I don't remember." Sei said firmly, throat suddenly tight with discomfort. _It was in high summer, and we were so young._

"Really." it wasn't a question, not when it was delivered in such a skeptic tone.

"Yes, really." she replied stubbornly. _We didn't even have the sense to be ashamed._

"I can remind you." Youko's voice was soft, but there was no hesitation in it. Her hands found Sei's face unerringly, and drew her in.

The kiss was soft and slow and languid and for a moment, it was everything.

Then the moment passed, and there was nothing, and Sei recoiled as if burned.

"No." she hoarsely, stepping back, arms clutching around her torso involuntarily.

_I won't let someone do this to me. Not again._

ooooo

"_We've been through this already, Sei." Her lover's voice was tired, and Sei's pounced on the weakness immediately._

"_I can't accept this." Her voice cracked. "Please, Shiori."_

_She kissed her desperately, hoping to change her mind. Praying._

"_You must." The words were whisper-quiet, but there was a ringing finality to them. "I love you dearly, Sei, but my duty is to the church."_

ooooo

Youko's mouth opened defiantly and she looked as if she wanted to argue, to convince her. But she seemed to change her mind, as Sei looked away from her, unable to meet that gaze.

"What did she do to you, Sei?" Youko whispered instead, stepping back closer. Her fingers moved softly over Sei's cheekbones, leaving trails of fire behind them. "Who was it, that hurt you like this?"

"She was duty." Strange, it was raining in high summer. "She was family, and duty, and honor." The rainwater was pooling in her eyes, blurring her vision. "So don't you dare look at me like that, Youko."

_Like you can take me in your arms, and fix me just by loving me. Don't you dare look at me like that, damn you._

Unsteadily, she lurched her way out of the grove, leaving the Duchess of Highgarden behind, her hands outstretched to the empty air.

ooooo

"_The sisters are my family now. I can't leave with you, Sei."_

ooooo

Somehow, she had stumbled back to her room in the darkness, half-blinded by tears. Tearing the sheets off of the bed provided for her, she'd gone off into a fitful sleep, the tears still streaking her cheek, unwiped.

_Damn you, Youko._

(She'd dreamt of doing that with Youko sometimes, when they were very young, and tonight she dreamt of it again.)

(In her dream, she kissed Youko back long and hard, until she was a breathless mess, and her fingers were tangled in Sei's hair, and she gasped incoherent endearments into Sei's neck as she fought to get her breath back. )

(In her dream, Sei whispered them back to her, gently, tenderly, as she picked out the roses adorning Youko's hair.)

(In her dream, the roses were beautiful but they had steel thorns, and every one of them hurt Sei, tore at the skin on her hands until she cried out loud and woke up.)

_Damn you, Shiori._

She half-rose from bed, rubbing the tears away blearily. Looking at her hands, she was half-surprised to find them unhurt.

She looked at her face in the mirror. Every spot where Youko had touched her still tingled.

Clutching her head in her hands, Sei sighed in defeat. _Damn. Damn. Damn._

ooooo

A/N: Yeah, IDEK about this one. I was probably drunk when I wrote it. Or high. Or both. Whatevs.


End file.
